


All Our Days

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: My Something [3]
Category: Stitchers (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Happy, Marriage Proposal, Morning Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 01:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4503327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People said “always” like it was such an expansive concept, but when you looked at it mathematically it suddenly seemed horribly small. Kirsten didn't want to miss any of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Our Days

Kirsten woke up to the scent of coffee, black and strong, and the realization that her head was at entirely the wrong angle.

She sat up, disoriented, to find that she had apparently fallen asleep on the couch the night before. Ed’s, her mother's, and her father's files were still spread out on the table in front of her, the ones that had been on her lap and the couch next to her moved and re-stacked there as well. They had been replaced by a blanket, carefully tucked in around her shoulders, and a mug of coffee sitting in the one empty space left on the table. From the kitchen, she could hear the sounds of someone cooking breakfast.

Chest warm, she left the coffee and blanket behind and headed into the kitchen. Cameron was at the stove, cooking what smelled like scrambled eggs and vegetables, and she promptly fitted herself against his back and hooked her chin over his shoulder. It impeded his movements, but he’d never once protested her doing it. “You could have woken me up,” she murmured, sliding her hands around his waist to anchor herself. “Made me go to bed.”

She felt him shake his head. “You haven’t been sleeping that well lately. I didn’t want to risk it.” He tilted his head, briefly nuzzling his cheek against her hair. “I missed you too, Princess."

Even when she didn’t use the right words, Cam always seemed to know what she meant. Kirsten pressed a kiss against his shoulder, then sighed. “It was a waste of time, anyway. I couldn't find anything that would suggest a greater purpose for the program, at least not beyond what we're already doing."

“I kind of figured that.” He smiled, the words teasing. “If you had found something, you’d have woken me up at 3 a.m. so we could go investigate.”

“That was _once_ ,” she grumbled, her own lips quirking upward.

“Once this month, you mean.” Then his voice took on a serious edge. “For the record, though, if you’re planning on investigating anything at 3 a.m. I always want you to wake me up. I’ll complain about it, but I definitely want to be there.”

She gave him a squeeze, her throat tightening. Cameron used ‘always’ so easily, especially when it was about the two of them, and every time he did it made her sad that she couldn’t grasp the full depth of what he meant. ‘Always’ was almost a default setting for her, the result of her inability to process concepts like “past” and “future,” and didn’t carry nearly the weight that she knew it did for him.

He reached down, giving her hand a quick squeeze. “I can help you look again tonight, if you want. Maybe there was something in the science I didn’t know to look for last time.”

Kirsten didn’t respond, mind catching on something he said. She might not sense time, but she did understand numbers. There were a finite number of “tonights” in a lifetime, or mornings like this one, and if she added them all up it might have the same scale that Cameron understood instinctively.

Okay. Given their age and relative health, it wasn’t impossible to think that they could both have 50 more years of life left. That equaled out to 18,250 days, which … weren’t that many, actually. If they were grains of sand, that wouldn’t even begin to be enough to fill a cubic centimeter. People said “always” like it was such an expansive concept, but when you looked at it mathematically it suddenly seemed horribly small. Worse, the number would only get smaller.

Cameron felt her tense, turning off the stove and moving the pan so he could shift around to look at her. “Kirsten?”

She looked up at him, his expression already sliding into worry, and wondered if any number of days with him would feel like enough. “I want them all,” she said suddenly, hands tightening on his hips.

His brow furrowed, confused. “All of what?”

“Your mornings, evenings, nights – all of it. Even if we both live 50 years, we only have 18,250 days left.” The words caught in her throat, and she had to pause before she could trust her voice again. Her eyes were stinging. “That’s not enough, but since it’s all we have I want to be with you for all of them. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever actually specified that, and I just ... it's really important you know that.” She paused, realizing, then swallowed. "I think I'm proposing, actually."

Cameron stared at her, a raw look on his face like she'd knocked all the air out of him. Then he kissed her, the rush of feeling behind it like a tidal wave, and it was her turn to be left reeling. She gave as good as she got, grateful for the chance to show him how she felt without fumbling through the words first.

When they did finally pull away, his cheeks were wet but his entire face was lit up. Kirsten swore she could feel that same light inside her. “Just … stay here for a second, okay?” He slid around her, and when she turned he held his hands up as he backed away. “I’ll be right back. I just … I need to go get something.”

Kirsten watched as he raced back to the bedroom, so much emotion crowding her chest it seemed impossible that there was room for all of it. She remembered standing in her backyard, Liam on one knee in front of her, disappointed that she'd felt so little over something that should have been momentous. She hadn't known back then that he'd been hired to get close to her – she just thought her lack of a reaction was one more sign of how broken she was.

But with Cameron, she felt more whole than she ever could have imagined.

When he came back, breathless, he hurried close and pressed what felt like a small box into her hand. He wrapped her fingers around it, his eyes so bright they almost gleamed. "Does this answer your not-exactly-a-question, Stretch?" he murmured, voice thick.

Heart in her throat, she opened the box and stared down at the diamond ring inside. It was simple, elegant - exactly what she would have chosen if she'd picked it out herself - and the fact that he'd already had it waiting made her eyes fill. “You want all my mornings, too,” she whispered.

“Along with all the afternoons, evenings and nights, just like you said.” His voice was soft and a little shaky. “Though I can officially ask, if you want.”

"It's ridiculous to phrase a proposal in the form of a question." She swiped her fingers across her now wet cheeks. "It's not like asking someone to pass the salt. You have considerably more stake in what you want the answer to be."

He grinned, his own eyes still damp. "Hey, someone might be really serious about that salt."

Kirsten hit him on the arm, then pulled him close for another kiss. This one was more playful, full of the same warmth and light that had settled deep into her chest. She fell into it, letting Cameron make her forget that the world had ever held anything but this.

When they broke apart, they wrapped their arms around each other and just held on. “Yes,” he whispered, pressing his lips against her neck. “A thousand times yes.”

Kirsten tightened her arms around him. This, this was what love was. “Me, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my weekly posts and original short fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


End file.
